COEUR d'ALENE - Finally, Idaho Republican voters matter when it comes to selecting the national party's nominee for president.

The Republican Party of Kootenai County has been busy getting ready for the state's first presidential caucus.

Tina Jacobson, chair of the Kootenai County Republican Party, said,

"It'll be a lot of fun that night."

That night is Super Tuesday, March 6.

"All of the sudden Idaho is a player," Jacobson said.

Due to the large number of Republican voters in Kootenai County and the lack of a building large enough to hold all the people that are expected to be participating, the party decided to hold the caucus at 10 different locations during the night. (see sidebar)

Jacobson is expecting between 2,000 and 5,000 people to participate, based on voter participation in 2008.

In past years, Idaho voters would cast their ballots for their presidential choice during the state's primary in May.

By that time, the Republican nominee had already been chosen and Idaho's voice was by then irrelevant, drowned out by states that voted or caucused before then.

In July 2011, the Idaho Republican Party voted to move from a primary system of voting for a presidential candidate to a caucus system.

The caucus will determine which presidential candidate will receive Idaho's 32 delegates at the Republican National Convention, in Tampa, Fla. Delegates will be awarded proportionately.

Jacobson said those who want to participate on Tuesday must get there from 5-7 p.m. Doors close at 7 p.m., then voting begins.

So who gets to participate?

A person must be an affiliated Republican voter to participate. Affiliation forms are available from local precinct committeemen or the county clerk's website.

The forms also will be available at each caucus location.

There's nothing to keep Democrats or Libertarians, or anyone else, from claiming they are Republicans. Basically, it's an honor system, she said.

However, Jacobson said the party will turn in filled-out party affiliation forms to the county clerk's office.

Once established as a Republican, participants will be given a wristband, which will be the ticket to play at the caucus.

From there it works like this:

Participants line up and are handed a ballot from an usher before they enter a voting area.

Each participant then secretly drops their ballot into one of the candidate's boxes.

Ballots from each box will be counted by the "tally committees" at the 10 sites. There could be five or more tally committee members at each site.

The tally committee members will be voted on by caucus goers that night.

Jacobson will be the score keeper.

She will be stationed at Lakeland High School in the gym, collecting vote totals from each voting round at the different sites. She will then report back to the sites which candidates make it to the next round.

In each round, the candidate receiving the fewest votes and any candidate or candidates receiving less than 15 percent of the caucus vote are eliminated.

Voting rounds continue until a single candidate receives greater than 50 percent of the vote, or until a final vote is taken for the last two remaining candidates.

A candidate could do very well at one site, but get clobbered at the others and be eliminated. A candidate has to do well countywide to advance. The sites will vote on the same candidates in each round.

The first round will have five candidates: Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich of Georgia, Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer.

To ensure the integrity of voting, different colored ballots will be used for each round, she said.

As soon as the countywide results are tabulated by Jacobson and she reports them back to the 10 sites, caucus goers then line up again and vote in the next round.

"It happens really fast," she said.

Between votes, caucus goers can discuss who to vote for in the upcoming round with their fellow Republicans.

"Electioneering is allowed at the sites," Jacobson said.

Voters can find their caucus location by checking the Kootenai County GOP's website, www.kootenaigop.org.

Depending on a voter's normal polling place and precinct number, the

caucus location would be one of the following:

• Kootenai High School, 13030 E. O'Gara Road, Harrison

• Timberlake High School, 5973 W. Highway 54, Spirit Lake

• Lakeland High School, 7006 W. Highway 53, Rathdrum

• The Greyhound Park, 5100 W. Riverbend Ave., Post Falls

• Canyon School, 27491 E. School House Loop, Cataldo

• The Coeur d'Alene Resort, 115 S. Second St., Coeur d'Alene

• Candlelight Christian Fellowship, 5725 N. Pioneer Drive, Coeur d'Alene

• New Life Church, 6068 W. Hayden Ave., Rathdrum

• Mica Flats Grange, 7465 W. Kidd Island Road, Coeur d'Alene

• Worley Grange, U.S. 95, Worley